Whether you’re Irish born, Irish bred or Irish in spirit, get involved & celebrate a year of Irish connections – The Gathering Ireland 2013!
Festivals and events
The Gathering will bring together hundreds of festivals and events throughout Ireland during 2013. They will celebrate the best in Irish music, art, literature, dance, culture, heritage, sport, film and food.
Fantastic New Year’s Eve Festivals will bookend the year, ensuring that 2013 both starts and ends with a bang! In between, take your pick from events such as St Patrick’s Festival, the Galway Arts Festival, the Wexford Opera Festival and Temple Bar TradFest, to name but a few. These will be familiar to many people but in 2013 they will all offer exciting new elements, making them bigger and better than ever for those visiting for The Gathering.
Great Gathering ideas
There are so many ways to get involved in The Gathering Ireland 2013. From family reunions to community festivals and twin towns to alumni gatherings, everyone is encouraged to work together to organise and host get-togethers. Reach out to your networks and connections overseas and invite them to come and visit in 2013. Here are some ideas…
Tracing your roots
There is a global Irish diaspora of 70 million. Are you one of them? Instead of waiting for you to find us, we’re inviting you back for The Gathering Ireland 2013. It might just be the perfect time to come and find out more about your forefathers and forge a deeper connection with our country.
When you start researching your family history, you never know what you’re going to find. And with no fewer than four recent US presidents claiming Irish family connections, the chances of discovering an influential relative are not as slim as they might at first seem!
In addition to the 1.3 million church records available online, there are national repositories of material, as well as local heritage and genealogy centres around the country. Download our guide, Tracing Your Ancestors (2.5MB .pdf) to get started or check out: www.irishgenealogy.ie, www.rootsireland.ie and www.nationalarchives.ie
You can also celebrate your Irish roots and honour your Irish ancestors by getting an official Certificate of Irish Heritage. These certs are issued by the Irish Government to those who have at least one Irish ancestor. You will even be offered help to track down the documents required to apply for the cert. In practice, that almost amounts to a free start on tracing your roots! Find out more at: www.heritagecertificate.ie
We hope this will be a chance for you to feel closer to Ireland and meet family that you never knew existed.
